Until we remodelled our kitchen 2 years ago we had inherited track lighting placed their by the previous owner. It looked wonderful and functioned, well light sourcewise, but were almost impossible to keep clean. They were small LED type fixture with a screen type back. Regardless of vent fan use and careful cooking it was as if any ambient grease in the air went right to the track lights and small bugs were attracted and became stuck on, in and around the fixtures. WHAT A CONTINUING MESS. If you have to do it choose a style that is closed as much as possible and easy to clean.

There are a number of pictures in the following thread. I posted there, and am too lazy to type it in again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Track lighting in Kitchen

The Juno track 12 looks great. It's great that you don't have to have the transformers right in the middle of everything. I haven't used track in a kitchen, but was in charge of it in a retail setting. Since it sounds like a good solution for your problem I'll share some tips.

If you use a combination of fixtures and lamps you can create ambient, task and spot lights using the same track. They even have pendants for decor! When stairstepper machines were stylish I used to say why go to the gym, I have a ladder. Before you install this make sure you're comfortable reaching the fixtures and changing bulbs.

Halogens get hot. They also get funky when they're dying. It's best to change out the lamps when they start to go yellow. Will these fixtures take LED's? I used to like sitting under the halogen down lights during Winter. (11' ceiling.)

Are you referring to regular track lighting or monorails? I see quite a few kitchens with monorails and if you check out the Tech Lighting site, you will find pictures of several kitchens.

Good luck!

Thank you all for your responses!

Bob, I saw your track lighting on that other thread and like it very much. Don't know if that set-up will work - our ceiling isn't as high as yours, and we have wiring issues - but what is the name of the company you bought it from?? We're also debating between stainless steel and black - leaning toward stainless though...

Homepro - I am still on a learning curve so not sure of the language but I think we need regular track, not monorail - see my comments to Bob above - but I will look on that site and try to educate myself and see other kitchens...

Nuthead - I definitely want to avoid the situation you are describing! ACK. But am not clear about what a style that is "closed"? Who needs one more thing to clean?

Pllog - yes, Juno Trac 12 is exactly what our electrician suggested and that's what I'm looking at. I think these are halogens, which we have had issues with in our current kitchen, getting too hot and glarey, so I'm going to look into LED's - although some people say they're not bright enough.

Homepro - sorry if this is a stupid question but when you refer to the Tech Lighting Site - do you mean www.techlighting.com?? or is it a forum on GW?

Momorichel,

I purchased the lights from arcadian lighting .com and used their 110% price match guarantee to drop the price further based on the slightly lower prices at besthomesystems .com.
Although at this time it seems that arcadian's prices are slightly lower than besthomesystems' prices so the price match wouldn't apply.

Good Luck,
-Bob